Injured RP, Sreesanth ruled out of Delhi Test; Munaf as cover

NEW DELHI, November 20: The most discussed ankle in Indian cricket these past few days is on the road to recovery. On the road to hospital are a rib and a shoulder.
While Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s left ankle, which he twisted during the Jaipur ODI versus Pakistan, is not troubling him unduly, Sreesanth is yet to recover from the blow to the shoulder he sustained in that game and RP Singh is hampered by a rib injury.
The bad news: with just a day to go for the first Test of the series at the Ferozeshah Kotla, both bowlers have been ruled out of the contest.
And to add ‘insult’ to injury (pun unintended), Munaf Patel, himself recovering from injury and always subject to scrutiny over his fitness, has been drafted in as a replacement. That, and the fact that Munaf’s current form can only be described as unpredictable. Nonetheless, desperate situations calling for desperate measures, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah made the news of Munaf being drafted in official.
While Munaf, in Dharamshala as of Tuesday for the Maharashtra-Himachal Pradesh Ranji Trophy Super League encounter, will join the team at the earliest, the other replacement could well be Delhi pacer Ishant Sharma, whose name is being discussed along with that of Rajasthan’s Pankaj Singh.
Sharma, ironically, almost flew down to South Africa in December last year after Irfan Pathan was sent back home for lack of form and, yes, Munaf was on the bench due to his suspect fitness.
In hindsight, Team India’s training session on Tuesday was a prelude to the drama that followed, what with Sreesanth being on the missing list and RP Singh marking his attendance but not doing enough to make his presence count.
One man who knew the script in advance was physio John Gloster. He alerted the team management, captain Anil Kumble discussed matters with the selectors, and the rest, as they say, spells problems for injury-hit Team India.